1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to substrate cleaning apparatus and methods for cleaning substrates such as semiconductor wafers, glass substrates for liquid crystal displays, mask substrates for use in semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a substrate cleaning apparatus has one of various types of cleaning mechanisms for cleaning substrates. These include a cleaning mechanism for cleaning substrates with a cleaning brush, a cleaning mechanism that supplies substrates with a cleaning solution under high pressure, a cleaning mechanism that supplies substrates with a cleaning solution with ultrasonic vibration applied thereto, and a cleaning mechanism that supplies substrates with a cleaning solution in the form of spray having a liquid-gas mixture.
In the substrate cleaning apparatus having such a cleaning mechanism, the cleaning brush for cleaning substrates or the cleaning solution supply nozzle for supplying a cleaning solution to substrates is variable with time. Such variations bring about variations in the effect of cleaning up particles adhering to surfaces of the substrates. Thus, the substrates could be cleaned only insufficiently.
By way of addressing this problem, it is conceivable to transport each substrate after a cleaning process to a particle inspecting apparatus for detecting a distribution of particles adhering to the substrate, and adjust the varied cleaning mechanism based on the distribution of particles on the substrate detected by the particle inspecting apparatus. Then the cleaning mechanism may effectively clean the substrate.
In this case, however, each cleaned substrate must be transported to the particle inspecting apparatus installed separately from the substrate cleaning apparatus, before detecting a distribution of particles. This poses a problem of requiring an extended time in treating each substrate.